For many coaches, transporting equipment to and from games for any sport that requires a multitude of protective gear and equipment may be fairly cumbersome and unwieldy. Baseball and softball are examples of sports that involve a plurality of equipment needed for proper team play. Typically, coaches haul one or more large canvas bags from their vehicle to the dug out for each game, and back from the dug out to their vehicle after each game. The equipment loosely packed into such canvas bags usually end up in a disorganized mess due to movement from transport and can be harmed when the equipment collides with each other. The bags may be very heavy and cumbersome to carry and they do not provide proper storage for the equipment as they do not provide ventilation to allow wet or sweaty equipment to dry out, thereby causing damage due to mold.
It is therefore desirable to provide an equipment carrier that keeps virtually all equipment required for a particular sport together such that the equipment may be easily transportable to and from games. In particular, it is desirable to provide a wheeled container for the equipment, preferably where the wheels on such a container are retractable between an extended position for use and a stowed position retracted flush within corresponding wheel-wells for ease and efficiency of storage.
In the prior art applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,141,680 and 4,575,109 which issued, respectively, to McCord et al for Portable Luggage having Retractable Wheels, and to Cowdery for a Luggage Case with Retractable Wheels. McCord et al. disclose a piece of luggage and luggage carrier having a pair of retractable wheels and a telescoping handle with a mechanism operating on the handle for extending and retracting the wheels from and to a compartment within the luggage. Cowdery discloses a luggage case having a retractable handle and retractable wheels which includes a clothes bar for hanging clothes and other items as well as inner compartments, at least one of which is accessible without opening the luggage case. The case is made up of a top portion and a bottom portion which are pivotally connected to each other so that they have an open and a closed position. When in the closed position the top and bottom portions form a case having top and bottom walls, front and rear walls and a pair of side walls. The retractable handle and retractable wheels can be linked so that extension of the retracted handle causes extension of the retracted wheels.
The devices of McCord et al. and Cowdery may be well adapted for use as luggage for the transport of clothing and travel items over the typically smooth-paved or smooth-floored surfaces associated with an airport for example where it is advantageous and not a disadvantage to use the luggage handle as the wheel actuating mechanism also. In contra-distinction, the wheeled sports container according to the present invention is better adapted for rolling over somewhat rougher terrain as may typically be encountered around many playing fields used for sports such as baseball, hockey etc. The rough terrain may be due to uneven ground between parking lots and the playing fields, and may include the parking lots themselves if gravel or mud lots, or may be due to snow and ice in an between parking lots and rinks, to give just two examples. In such instances it has been found that a heavy load of sporting goods in the container being bumped over uneven ground may inadvertently cause a handle-mounted wheel actuation linkage on the container to dis-engage the outwardly locked wheels thereby allowing the wheels to retract and the container to drop onto the ground.